Ideal and actual culture: How different is too different

Ideal and actual culture: How different is too different?

Cheryl A. Boglarsky, Human Synergistics International

Catherine T. Kwantes, University of Windsor

Presented at the 65th Annual Conference of the Canadian Psychological Association

The interest in person-organization (P-O) fit research and thinking has gained momentum in the last few

years, due in part to organizations increasingly employing teams whose members rotate from activity to

activity rather than staying in one job, globalization and downsizing. As a result they are compelled to

require more of employees, including retraining and the acquisition of new skills and flexibility. If the

reliance on selecting individuals based on general organizational compatibility is increasing, and

organizational changes will inevitably occur, it appears that the focus of compatibility/congruence is

misplaced. Because of the fluid nature of the organization, and the need for the individual to constantly

adapt, compatibility should be further conceptualized to include the "what is expected" of members of an

organization ¨C or the organizational culture. The Organizational Culture Inventory? (OCI) was used to

assess employees¡¯ perceptions of their current work culture and also of the organizational culture they

believed would be the ideal organizational culture in which to work.

Difference scores were analyzed to explore the impact of exceeding or failing to meet the ideal cultural

norms using data from 697 employees in 10 organizations. Organizational commitment was the main

outcome variable. Initial results provide only partial support for the notion that actual-ideal culture

incongruence leads to negative outcomes, and suggest that the direction of incongruence and the cultural

style play a large role in the determination of P-O fit.

ways in which P-O ¡°compatibility¡± has been

conceptualized:

The interest in person-organization (P-O) fit research

and thinking has gained momentum in the last few

years. The basic notion is that a fit between personal

? supplementary fit ¨C where the individual

attributes and characteristics of the target

possesses characteristics that are similar to

organization contributes to important individual and

other organizational members;

organizational outcomes.

? complementary fit ¨C where the individual

adds something unique to the organization

This interest is due in part to the rise in organizations

and ¡°makes it whole;¡±

increasingly employing teams whose members rotate

? needs-supplies ¨C where the organization

from activity to activity rather than staying in one

satisfies an individuals¡¯ needs, wants and

job; globalization and downsizing of many

desires;

organizations continue, and as a result they are

? demands-abilities ¨C where the individual

compelled to require more of employees, including

satisfies an organizations¡¯ needs, wants and

retraining and the acquisition of new skills and

demands.

flexibility. Thus there is greater reliance on selecting

people according to their general fit to the

These conceptualizations treat organizations as static

organization rather than for a particular job (see

entities and do not take into account the dynamic,

Borman, Hanson & Hedge, 1997 for a review).

organic nature of organizations. Because an

organization must be responsive to its environment,

Generally, P-O fit has been described as the

it must be flexible and open to a continuous cycle of

compatibility between individual attributes and

input, internal transformation, output, and feedback

characteristics of the organization, which contributes

(Morgan, 1996). Therefore, organizational needs and

to important individual and organizational outcomes,

demands are constantly changing in response to

especially organizational commitment. However

environmental conditions and changes. As a result,

Kristof (1996) points out there have been several

organizational strategy and structures may change

1

The study included three research questions:

and cause changes in member characteristics and

organizational needs, all of which affect the P-O fit.

If the reliance on selecting individuals based on

general organizational compatibility is increasing,

and organizational changes will inevitably occur, it

appears that the focus of compatibility is misplaced.

Because of the fluid nature of the organization, and

the need for the individual to constantly adapt,

compatibility should be further conceptualized to

include the "what is expected" of members of an

organization - or, more technically, the behavioral

norms and expectations associated with the more

abstract aspects of culture such as shared values and

beliefs. These behavioral norms, or organizational

culture, are relatively unchanging in the face of

environmental demands (Cooke & Szumal, 2000).

1.

Is there a relationship between a personorganizational culture misfit (i.e.,

incongruence) and negative outcomes?

2.

Is there a difference in the relationship

(person-organizational culture misfit and

outcomes) regarding the direction of

incongruence? That is, is there a differential

effect of exceeding or failing to meet the

ideal cultural norms?

3.

What role does cultural style play in this

relationship?

Method

Participants

The present study

An archival database was accessed for this study.

Data from employees at ten organizations (N=697)

in the United States were used to examine the

hypotheses.

The present study examines the contention that that

P-O fit, and its resulting effect on organizational

commitment, should include the fit between expected

and preferred behavioral norms.

Instrument

Presently, ideal organizational culture (as defined by

the behaviors, if reinforced, would increase

individual effectiveness) was paired with the actual

organizational culture (as defined by the behaviors

that are currently reinforced). The gap or

incongruence between the extent to which a specific

behavioral norm was desired (i.e., ideal culture) and

the extent to which the specific behavioral norm was

experienced (i.e., actual culture) served as the

independent variable.

Both the actual culture and the ideal culture were

measured using the Organizational Culture

Inventory? (OCI; Cooke & Lafferty, 1987; Cooke &

Szumal, 2000). The OCI is a survey that assesses

normative beliefs and shared behavioral

expectations, which may reflect the more abstract

aspects of culture such as shared assumptions and

values. The OCI contains 96 items designed to

produce 12 scales of 8 items each. Each item

describes a behavior or personal style that is

currently expected and/or encouraged in their

organization. On a scale of 1(Not at all) to 5 (To a

very great extent), respondents were asked to

indicate the extent to which each behavior is

expected in their organization. The 12 scales and the

culture patterns they reflect are classified into three

major clusters, Constructive, Passive/Defensive and

Aggressive/Defensive, with four styles each (Table

1). Illustrative items from the scales, along with the

item stem and response options are presented in

Table 2. The style scores are derived by summing the

raw scores for each style and the cluster scores are

the mean of the four styles.

Chan (1996) suggested that, "Over time, individuals

in cognitive misfit are likely to be less motivated, less

committed, and experience more work-related stress

and job dissatisfaction than those in fit" (p. 199).

These negative attitudinal states can lead directly to

low satisfaction and intentions to leave ¨C in other

words, low organizational commitment.

Therefore two organizational outcomes, the extent to

which respondents indicated high levels of job

satisfaction and intention to stay, served as the

dependent variable in the present study.

Research questions

2

scores. This indicates that incongruence due to

experiencing more cultural style than preferred leads

to more positive outcome scores than incongruence

due to experiencing less cultural style than preferred.

Two outcome measures (Kwantes, 2000; O'ConnorCahill, 2002) were used:

Job satisfaction (i.e., the extent to which

members feel positively about their work

situation), and

Research question 3: To determine the role of

individual cultural style, the direction and strength of

the incongruence was determined for each cultural

cluster (Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and

Aggressive/Defensive) and for each associated style

(table 1).

Intention to stay (i.e., the extent to which

members plan to remain with their current

organization).

Both outcomes were measured on 5-point scales that

range from 1 (disagree or not at all) to 5 (agree or to

a very great extent).

The direction was determined as in Research

question 2. That is, overall d scores that are positive

(indicating that respondents wish to have a lesser

extent of the cultural style) and negative (indicating

that the respondents wish to have a greater extent of

the cultural style).

Results and Discussion

Actual-ideal culture incongruence was determined by

subtracting the ideal culture score from the actual

culture score (as measured by the OCI). This

produced a difference score (d) and the result was

used to indicate the amount of congruence (or fit)

between the actual and ideal cultures. That is, scores

near zero (d=0), indicate that the actual and ideal

cultures are similar. Negative d scores indicate

preference for a greater extent of a particular cultural

style; and positive d scores indicate a preference for a

lesser extent of that cultural style.

Incongruence strength was determined by the

standard deviation (SD) of the overall d scores. The

overall d scores¡¯ SDs were divided into quarters ¨C

where the lowest and highest quarters constituted

higher dispersions, indicating higher incongruence,

or strength; and the second and third quarters had

smaller dispersions, thus indicating lower

incongruence, or strength. Table 6 presents the

organizational outcome means and SDs by cultural

strength and cultural style.

Research question 1: To determine if actual-ideal

culture incongruence leads to negative outcomes, a

correlational analysis was run between an overall d

(mean of all 12 gap scores) and the organizational

outcomes.

Oneway ANOVAs were run to determine if positive

and negative outcome levels varied depending on

direction and strength of the incongruity.

Contrary to expectations, outcomes do not always

become more negative as incongruity increases.

Figures 1 through 6 show the patterns between the

cultural clusters and incongruence. For the

Constructive cultural cluster, the positive outcomes

increased as the incongruity became positive (actual

exceeded ideal) and decreased as incongruity became

negative (ideal exceeded actual). Conversely, for the

Defensive clusters (Passive and Aggressive) the

relationship was opposite ¨C the organizational

outcomes decreased as incongruity became positive

(actual exceeded ideal) and increased as incongruity

became negative (ideal exceeded actual). Similar

results were found for the individual cultural styles.

The Pearson¡¯s r correlation coefficients of -.22, and .15 (both significant at p ................
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